1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to serial scan type recording apparatus and method which record an image on a recording medium while scanning a recording head.
2. Related Background Art
As a control method of a recording head moving motor for moving a recording head in this kind of recording apparatus, there is known a method which uses motor driving tables corresponding to record modes.
Conventionally, only a motor driving table corresponding to a set record mode has been used. When a high speed recording mode is set, for example, only a motor driving table corresponding to the high speed recording mode is used to move a recording head stably at a high speed in a recording area.
In other words, a record mode in which a carriage is moved at a highest speed is selected fixedly out of support modes irrespective of a kind and a size of an image to be recorded when the high speed recording mode is selected.
For moving a recording head stably at a high speed in a recording area, however, the motor driving table corresponding to the high speed recording mode requires a large amount of movement of the recording head for acceleration of the recording head moving motor. When a small image which has a small recording amount is recorded using a motor driving table corresponding to the high speed recording mode, for example, an accelerating area required for acceleration of the recording head driving motor may be larger than a recording area for recording the image, thereby making it impossible to perform high speed recording.
This is because a carriage acceleration/deceleration profile is constant irrespective of a recording mode, and a time required for a carriage to reach a desired speed and a time required to stop the carriage from the desired speed are always longer than those in another mode.
An object of the present invention is to provide a recording apparatus and a recording method which select an optimum motor driving table as a motor driving table to be used for controlling a recording head moving motor, thereby being capable of remarkably enhancing recording operation throughput.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a recording apparatus and a recording method which perform recording operations in a high speed recording mode in a time shorter than that in another record mode.
In order to attain the objects described above, the present invention provides a recording apparatus for recording an image on a recording medium while scanning a recording head with a driving force of a motor, comprising control means which is capable of controlling the above described motor by selectively using a plurality of motor driving tables and selecting means for selecting a motor driving table to be used by the above described control means out of the above described plurality of motor driving tables according to recording data of an image to be recorded on a recording medium.
Furthermore, the present invention provides a recording method for recording an image on a recording medium while scanning a recording head with a driving force of a motor, wherein a motor driving table to be used for controlling the above described motor is selected out of a plurality of motor driving tables according to recording data of an image to be recorded on a recording medium at a stage to control the above described motor by selectively using the above described plurality of motor driving tables.
Furthermore, the present invention provides a recording apparatus which records an image by scanning on a recording medium a carriage mounted with a recording head and is configured to be capable of selectively setting, at a stage of the above described scanning, a carriage moving speed out of a plurality of values according to a recording mode, comprising record width calculating means for calculating recording widths for recording by scans and moving speed selecting means for selecting out of the above described plurality of values a carriage moving speed at which a total of periods for all scans from start to stop of a carriage is shortest at each of the recording widths in a high speed recording mode.
Furthermore, the present invention provides a recording speed control method for a recording apparatus which performs recording by scanning on a recording medium a carriage mounted with a recording head and is configured to be capable of selectively setting a carriage moving speed out of a plurality of values at a stage of the above described scanning, comprising a record width calculating step of calculating record widths for recording by scans and a moving speed selecting step of selecting out of the above described plurality of values a carriage moving speed at which a total of periods for all scans is shortest at each of the above described record widths.
The recording apparatus according to the present invention is a recording apparatus which performs recording by scanning across a recording medium a carriage mounted with a recording head and is configured to be capable of selecting a carriage moving speed out of a plurality of values at a scan stage, wherein a record width for recording by each scan is calculated and a carriage moving speed at which a total of periods for all scans required from start to stop of the carriage is selected out of the plurality of values for each of the record widths.
The image forming apparatus which is configured as described above selects the carriage moving speed so that the total of periods for all scans is the shortest at each scan, thereby always shortening a time required for entire recording irrespective of an image to be recorded. Furthermore, the shortest total of periods for all scans reduces a carriage stroke width (moving range) to a required minimum, thereby providing also an effect to allow the image forming apparatus to produce minimum noise and consume power in a small amount.